Woodcut - what is it in art?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Many people know what a drawing is, but not everyone knows what an engraving is. But both drawing and engraving belong to graphics, the expression of which is a line and a stroke. However, the difference still exists. The engraver marks the image on a hard wooden surface, creating a woodcut. The meaning of the word, by the way, comes from the Greek lexemes: "xylon" - "wooden board" - and grapho - "I draw". Then an impression is made on paper or other material. Our article is about this ancient art form.

Ancient engraving technique

So what is woodcut? By definition, this is a type of letterpress printing, which is carried out using printed boards, on which a design is applied by carving. Woodcut printing is a type of applied art that has a variety of applications. Compared to frescoes and mosaics, it is considered a young art form.

The work of the engraver and the process of creating woodcuts began with a drawing. The artist either himself created an engraving ontree - woodcuts, or turned to a professional. Basically, the division of labor prevailed for almost four centuries: the artist created the drawing, the engraver reproduced it.

Woodcut Forerunners

Some researchers of the history of graphic art believe that the indirect predecessor of woodcuts is stamping, which is a direct impression of a relief image. It first appeared in the cradle of human civilization in Mesopotamia, in 3000 BC. e. Round seals for pressing into clay were evidence of the creation of prints. This was followed by the stencil period in ancient Egypt.

This practice of printing images dates back to the time of the introduction of paper in China, around the 2nd century CE. e. As a rule, these were flat reliefs imprinted on a dampened sheet of writing material. By rubbing it with special brushes or by tapping, this relief was reproduced on paper. Next was the processing of this imprinted relief. The printmaking method was also used after the advent of woodcuts.

Woodcut in the East

In its origin, the earliest printing technique is woodcut. She appeared in the East. Historical sources in China provide information that printing with wooden boards has been produced in the country since the 6th century. However, the earliest archaeological find - an engraving that has survived to this day - dates back to 868. It depicts the Buddha surrounded by saints. Text prints have been found in Korea,imprinted in the 8th century.

Buddhism has acquired a comprehensive significance in the cultural life of Japan. So, in 741, the ruler of the state ordered the construction of a Buddhist temple in each province. By that time, temple ensembles had been created in the city of Nara. In one of them, in the temple of Horyuji, the oldest examples of woodcuts have survived to this day (including printed text). The first, fairly reliable date in the history of Japanese printing is the year 770. This year, a million small pagodas 13.5 cm high were made in order to put printed Buddhist spells into each of them and welcome them to their temples. These are unstitched separate pages in the form of two boards with strings.

Woodcut in Arab countries and Western Europe

Engravings from wooden boards appeared in Arab countries as a result of their penetration from the countries of the Far East. With the help of woodcuts in Egypt, books in Arabic were published dating back to the period between the 10th and 14th centuries. Also in Egypt, the so-called prints were used to print patterns on fabrics, and this is also woodcut.

The rapid spread of woodcuts in Western Europe dates back to the 15th century. It was similar to the technique by which heel boards were made. Samples of such boards have been preserved in the form of works with ornaments and plot compositions of Italian work. Fragment of a printing plate carved in France depicting a crucifix, dated 1397.

The Early Renaissance gives woodcuts a slightly different meaning. Engraving has no decorative and applied value, but develops as an independent art form. The circle of engravings expands from individual sheets to maps and calendars of mass consumption. In 1461, the first book in Germany with woodcuts was published.

Ancient prints from Japan

The question of whether typography in Japan is a borrowed or independent phenomenon has been solved in different ways to date. A number of scholars believe that the art of woodcutting in Japan developed from the production of printed fabrics, while others argue that it came to Japan from China. However, the oldest woodcut monument (darani) was found in Japan, not in China.

Japanese engravers in their works depicted various scenes of everyday life and dynamic poses from the actors' repertoire. Such prints have been featured in exhibitions and Kabuki prints. By the beginning of the 19th century, color woodcuts gained wide popularity in Japan. It was made from several boards, painted in different colors. When Japan opened its trade routes to Europe in 1868, famous artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Whistler and Van Gogh became renowned collectors of these prints and often brought aspects of the woodcut style into their own artwork.

Stages of the engraver

Techniques for performing woodcuts have become more complicated since its inception, but the basis for its implementation has remained the same. Stages of work onwoodcut look like this. The engraver's main tools are a knife, chisels of various widths and a chisel, with which he creates a pattern on the board. The wooden board on which the drawing is “knocked out” is a saw cut of a tree with soft wood (pear or beech). The board is primed before work. On the board prepared for work, a drawing in a mirror image is knocked out with the above tools.

The next stage of work will be rolling a special printing ink onto the drawing with a roller. A sheet of paper or material is superimposed on the surface of the board, on which the drawing should be printed. The impression can be made either manually using a lever press or using an electric press machine. The drawing goes to the material. Engraving completed.

The same technique was used to print texts and illustrations before the invention of printing. The masters were able to convey a variety of emotional shades in the contrasting black and white lines of their engravings. This is clearly seen in the "Dance of Death" by H. Holbein and the powerful "Apocalypse" by A. Dürer.

Why engraving and not drawing?

Understanding how difficult the method of making woodcuts is, you ask yourself the question: why does an artist need to do complex and laborious work, and not draw on paper? The drawing is unique. No matter how many copies of this drawing, they remain reproductions. And this is not art. There is no elusive presence of the author in the reproduction. There is another author in it, who transmits his energy, his colors in copies. So it's just a reminderoriginal.

The main quality of woodcuts is the ability to replicate the drawing. Using a prepared stencil on one board, made by the author, you can get prints in the required quantity. All this will be the author's work, under which its creator can put his signature.

Woodcut in Russia

The first representatives of this type of graphics include the engravers of the mid-19th century E. Bernadsky and V. Mate. The latter was a great master and an outstanding teacher. Great masters emerged from his engraving class at the Stieglitz School: A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, I. Fomin, V. Masyutin, P. Shilingovsky. These masters formed the school of Soviet woodcuts, continuing to work with the old themes of graphics: landscape, portrait, book illustration. A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva stood at the origins of the author's woodcuts.

The central figure of woodcuts after 1920 was V. Favorsky. This is a wide range artist. An engraver, an artist, a decorator, a muralist, a designer were combined in one person. But, according to Favorsky himself, he revealed himself more in such an area as book woodcuts. His school in the Soviet woodcut took a leading place, and many of his students became major artists (D. Konstantinov, A. Goncharov, M. Pikov).

Exhibition of prints in Moscow

The State Tretyakov Gallery in November 2015 hosted the exhibition "Materials and Techniques of Engraving. Woodcuts". It featured engravings kept in storerooms. Among them, about200 original works and engravings, as well as over a dozen graphic albums. The timeframe display covers the period from the beginning of the 17th to the 1930s. When creating the exposition, the chronological principle was taken into account and the desire, as far as possible, to maintain the integrity of the resulting collections. Visitors could get acquainted with the materials that tell about the xylography technique. The exhibits of the exhibition were samples of all types and forms of woodcuts, from popular prints to linocuts.

One of the exhibits was a pear frame that withstood 87,000 prints. It was from her that the sheets of the altar Gospel of the beginning of the 17th century were printed. Before the introduction of photographic technologies, woodcuts were in demand as imitating pencil drawing and painting. Engravers performed picturesque paintings in a mirror to preserve the authenticity of the canvas.

The exhibition showcased different eras in the art of woodcuts. These are Japanese, European and Russian graphics. Boards and prints were presented. The exhibition introduced the works of contemporary authors, their engravings, as well as various genres of woodcuts.